SurLaLune Fairy Tales

If you have fairy tale or folklore related things you'd like to share, please send them to me through my website email, heidi at surlalunefairytales dot com. Read more about fairy tales at SurLaLune Fairy Tales.

Everybody knows that Hollywood has gone fairy-tale crazy. There are dueling Snow White movies and competing Beauty and the Beast shows, plus a ton of others. But eventually, they're going to run out of Disney-approved fairytales, and they're going to have to dig into... the weird stuff. You know, the ones where young girls get their hands chopped off and tons of cute animals kill each other. And we can't wait.

Anyway, it's fun to play the game of what fairy tales should be made into movies. I'm just disappoint The Robber Bridegroom (or any Bluebeard variant) didn't make the list. It's not a movie I would personally want to see (I'm too much of a wimp) but it is a perfect film idea and deserves more recognition.

La belle au bois dormant and Cendrillon are both illustrated by Candy Bird. They are very modern in illustration style and since I only had a few images from each, I decided to share both today. I admit that I was charmed by one of the Cinderella illustrations because it is a direct salute to Edmund Dulac, one of my favorite Golden Age Illustrators. I'll put a comparison image below, too.

Princess Charming by Nicole Jordan is a new Cinderella inspired romance novel released today. This is a start to a new series by Jordan but it is unclear if any more fairy tale characters will serve as inspiration, see below. There is never a loss for new Cinderella romances, but the bigger name romance authors are taking up the fairy tale gauntlet more than in recent years just like in every other area of entertainment, it seems.

Book description:

In Nicole Jordan’s dazzling new Regency series, the scandalous Wilde cousins seek true love by imitating history’s legendary lovers . . . beginning with Ashton Wilde, Marquis of Beaufort, who takes on the daunting role of Prince Charming to an unlikely Cinderella.

Thanks to the mischievous meddling of his matchmaking sister, Ashton Wilde meets a damsel in distress during the midnight magic of a lavish ball. But Maura Collyer isn’t looking for a prince—or an intimate pairing with any member of the scandalous noble Wilde family.

Intrigued by Maura’s beauty and daring, Ash is determined to aid in the rescue of her beloved stallion, gambled away by her wicked stepmother to an evil viscount. As their adventure becomes rife with peril and passion, Ash suspects he’s found his heart’s desire.

Even though her dearest friend may be her self-proclaimed fairy godmother, Maura is mortified at being pushed into a romance with a notorious rake such as Ash. Dashing and charming, he comes to Maura’s rescue just in time to help her steal back her precious horse. As they flee across the countryside, she can’t resist his sweet seduction. But is her prince playing a role in a fairy tale to test an improbable theory, or is the love awakening in her heart proof of her own happily ever after?

From one of Jordan's promotional emails, which leaves the question of whether or not other fairy tale characters will inspire the series:

In Princess Charming¸ our erstwhile hero, Ashton Wilde, Marquis of Beaufort, endears himself to an unlikely Cinderella, Maura Collyer, by helping her reclaim her beloved stallion, which her wicked stepmother sold to an evil viscount. As they flee across the countryside, their adventure becomes rife with peril and passion. Ah, yes, passion. You see, this new series finds the five scandalous Wilde cousins seeking true love by imitating history’s timeless legendary lovers—in fairy tales, Shakespeare’s plays, even romantic Greek myths.

Monday, January 30, 2012

I missed posting about another fairy tale inspired TV show last week. The new series, The Finder, from the producers of Bones, aired its third episode, A Cinderella Story this past Thursday. It was a playful and deadly play on the Cinderella story, heavily referencing the tale but still an interesting interpretation with an unexpected twist. You can watch the show on Fox and Amazon if you live in the release zones.

Simple plot description follows but I have put a full spoiler plot description at the bottom of this post:

A missing shoe leads to an unlikely fairy tale ending.

A few more previews:

Spoiler ALERT!

Here's the full Cinderella plot from the episode:

Leo and Walter help a math geek find a woman he met at a bar who left behind a ruined note and a shoe as the only clues to finding her. At first they think they are on a romantic hunt for a Cinderella who may be in danger. Eventually they realize they are hunting for a femme fatale/serial killer who baits men by leaving shoes and notes behind, ultimately killing them in her search for Prince Charming.

If you haven't read any of Ritchie's work, I obviously find her handling of fairy tales rather fascinating. There is no magic but the stories are faithful yet imaginative retellings. And when one considers they were written as contemporary fiction in their time, they take on another dimension of interest, too.

Book description:

FAIRY tales have long been an important part of the world's history and literature, especially for women whose voices have often been trivialized, ignored or made anonymous. Old wives' tales, fairy tales, and folklore-whatever terms are chosen-are part of our earliest literature and have often provided the medium for women's voices, for women's stories. Like the women of the French Salons who used traditional stories to create and recreate tales that both inspired and criticized their world and its expectations, women writers have long been recording and rewriting fairy tales for their own generations. The practice continues up to current times and will easily continue on past our own generations into a distant future.

One such author from the Victorian era was Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray. Ritchie rewrote nine fairy tales into short stories and novellas, exploring and reinterpreting the tales for the audience of her time. She wasn't the first to do so--and certainly not the last--but she firmly belongs in this literary legacy, one in which she has all too often been overlooked.

Edited with a new introduction by Heidi Anne Heiner, this volume includes Anne Thackeray Ritchie's nine short stories and novellas from Five Old Friends and Bluebeard's Keys and Other Stories: "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," "Cinderella," "Beauty and the Beast," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Jack the Giant-killer," "Bluebeard's Keys," "Riquet á la Houppe," "Jack and the Bean-stalk," and "The White Cat."

Additional materials include Ritchie's introduction to The Fairy Tales of Madame D'Aulnoy and "Bluebeard's Ghost" by William Makepeace Thackeray, Ritchie's father.

Princess of the Wild Swans by Diane Zahler is released tomorrow, her third fairy tale retelling and this time of Wild Swans/Six Swans, etc. And there is to be a fourth one, too. A nice little library to have! This one has a few versions that are equally popular from Andersen and Grimms, primarily, that it is always hard to choose which tale title to use. But it's a wonderful tale and I am looking forward to reading this one sometime, hopefully soon. (And, by the way, you can order a new hardcover of this one and get the previous hardcovers at a bargain price on Amazon if the inventory lasts on them. Look for the bargain links on the book pages.)

I know so many people who grew up loving this tale or discovering it and falling in love with it through Juliet Marillier's Daughter of the Forest. And it is surprising how many novel length retellings there have been over the years in comparison to how obcure the tale is to the general population. (Same goes with Twelve Dancing Princesses, but Six Swans wins for having novelizations that are decades old, too.) But they are not frequent and Zahler's book is a welcome addition.

Since my TBR pile is high and I have to purchase this one yet, I think I will be waiting a few months until I get to start working on the SurLaLune Six/Wild Swans anthology. I've been collecting them for years and have to publish a collection even if hardly anyone buys it! I think this novel will be a perfect inspiration to kick off the final collecting and editing process.

Book description:

Princess Meriel’s brothers have been cursed. A terrible enchantment—cast by their conniving new stepmother—has transformed the handsome princes into swans. They now swim forlornly on a beautiful heart-shaped lake that lies just beyond the castle walls.

Meriel will do whatever it takes to rescue her beloved brothers. But she must act quickly. If Heart Lake freezes, her brothers will be forced to fly south or perish.

With help from her newfound friends Riona and Liam—a pretty half-witch and her clever brother—Meriel vows to finish a seemingly impossible task. If she completes it, her brothers may be saved.

The month is almost over and I could only find one or two images at most for books illustrated by Sibylle Delacroix so I decided to make a post devoted to her fairy tale work instead of one book by her for day's France Month. Most of the images came from her website.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Fleur de Cendre by Annick Combier (Auteur), Anne Romby (Illustrateur) is a French picture book of a Japanese Cinderella story. Marvelous! I am an Anne Romby fan. This book gives more evidence as to why she deserves my devotion. I don't own this one, but I just may have to get it someday.

I borrowed these page images on Amazon.fr, FNAC.com, and Papier de Soie. There are a few repeats, but they show layout vs. details so I included both.